A Scavenger Hunt in the Far East

In the days of Pluck, your location went along with your profile, so you instantly knew where people hail from. Not so with Hoopla, so if you don't know, I'm living in Taipei, Taiwan. There is a riverside park with a path that stretches for miles and miles close to my apartment, and that is where I scavenged. (that, or on the way there)

1. Something Beautiful: This tropical island has flowers everywhere, and I thought these little ones were particularly purrty.

2. Something ugly. Here is a flood gate that opens to the river if we get a direct hit from a Typhoon. Right now, stagnant pond scum.

3. Something loud. Scooters are the preferred method of transportation for any short journey in Taipei. Some of the kids trick their scooters out with LED lights and chrome. This particular mod serves one main purpose--make it loud.

4. Something purple. I don't know who, but somebody tied orchids to all the palm trees in the neighborhood. Here is a purple one. It is pretty, too.

5. Something with numbers. A side note: most every public sign in Taipei is translated into English.

6. Something ironic: This is a water faucet in along the park path. The irony is that you can't drink it. If you do, you are sure to get dysentery or some other waterborne virus. I've run by this one many times thinking how nice it would be to fill up my water bottle here. The other irony is that this is the only sign that is not translated into English. I can't read it, but I've always assumed it says "do not drink."

7. A live animal. I see a lot of birds along the river. The white heron-looking ones are my favorite. They usually ignore me, but they all tried to fly away when I wanted to get their picture. The 'ol iPod did OK catching this one.

8. Person or people doing something healthy: This one was taken at the end of my run in the common area outside my apartment building. There are about 20-30 senior citizens doing Tai-Chi from 6-6:30 am. It is a very common social activity here.

9. Something very tall. There is only one building in the world taller than Taipei 101.

10. Yourself after a hot run. Well, this is a goofball photo, isn't it?

What a beautiful place to live and run! Thanks for sharing such awesome pics!

I think an irony is going from MN blizzards to Taiwanese Typhoons!

Regading the Drinking Fountain... I actually DRANK the tap water in Nicaragua (multiple times, on different trips) and did not get sick. I attribute that to being such a tomboy as a kid that my immune system is like Fort Knox.

Neato! The water fountain thing is pretty funny. I wouldn't want to be the tourist who decides to drink from it, If we could copy text from pictures we could plug those symbols into Google Translator... bummer! hehe. Nice interesting tour

I was running in Puerto Rico once and stopped at a water fountain next to a park. I was about to take a drink when I saw a guy running toward me screaming, "NO!!!" Thanks to that guy, I enjoyed the rest of my vacation.

Regading the Drinking Fountain... I actually DRANK the tap water in Nicaragua (multiple times, on different trips) and did not get sick. I attribute that to being such a tomboy as a kid that my immune system is like Fort Knox.

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